Information Needs and Information Sources Used by the Women Gram Panchayat Members (WGPMs): A Study of Kurukshetra District, Haryana

1. Information Needs and Information Sources
Used by the Women Gram Panchayat Members
(WGPMs): A Study of Kurukshetra District,
Haryana
Rajiv Dr. Joginder Singh
Ph.D. Research Scholar, Professor & Chairman
Deptt. of Library and Information Science Deptt. of Library and Information Science
Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra- 136119 Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra-136119
E-Mail- Rajivsabharwal007[at]gmail[dot]com E-Mail- jsburman69[at]gmail[dot]com

2. Introduction
Women are a vital part of Gram Panchayat in India. They are
representing their community and raise the female voice. In the
information society, everyone can create, access, use and share
information to individual and community (including women) for
development or empower of their life. The main objective of women
reservation in panchayats is empowering the women.
Information needs are differ from state to state, district to district
and village to village. At village level, WGPMs needs information is not
same. WGPMs need information for rural development such as
government plans & policies, agricultural credit/loan, contracts, rural
development, old age pensions and female community.

3. Review of Literature
Yusuf, Masika and Ighodaro (2013) shed light on farmers
information need in Konkobe municipality, South Africa.
Meitei and Purnima Devi (2009) described the agricultural
information need of rural farmer’s i.e. health information, educational
and training information in the Manipur.
Saleh and Lasisi (2011) shows that generally rural women needed
information on agricultural, educational and health in Borno State,
Nigeria.
Hossain and Islam (2012) reported that rural women information
needs on agricultural, animal husbandry, health and food & nutrition
or religious in three villages of Bangladesh.

4. Objectives of the Study
1. To find out the information needs of the WGPMs in Kurukshetra
district;
2. To identify the information sources used by the WGPMs;
3. To ascertain the purpose of use information by the WGPMs;
4. To find out the information sources preferred by WGPMs;
5. To identify the timeliness of information access from different
sources by the WGPMs;
6. To identify the constraints while accessing information by the
WGPMs under study;
7. To explore the satisfaction level of the WGPMs;

5. Objectives of the Study
• To describe concept of ETDs;
• To find the role of Shodhganga repository in ETDs;
• To know the ranking of Indian universities in Shodhganga repository;
• To identify the present position of the Delhi universities in Shodhganga
repository;
• To explore the comparative position among the Delhi universities about the
contribution of ETDs in Shodhganga repository.

6. Study area and methodology
The data was collected from 94 WGPMs from 47 Gram
Panchayats. The questionnaire were distributed and collected by
visiting at the houses of WGPMs in 2015. The information regarding
Gram Panchayat Members was accessed from the District
Information System of Kurukshetra and Panchayat Directory.

7. Findings of the study
1. Majority of WGPMs (77.7%) aware about the information sources
that information related to rural development and 92.6% WGPMs
agreed that people contact to get any type of information.
2. Almost all respondents (96.8%) agreed that there should be a
community information centre at village level. So that it can provide
information related to rural development.
3. More than 90% WGPMs were accessing appropriate information
from Government employees and 55.3% from print media.
4. Majority of 70.2% WGPMs were using Haryana Samwad
magazine to their information needs and 63.8% getting information
from magazines regarding Government Plans.
5. 41.5% WGPMs were using Newspaper, mainly for developing &
planning and local news related to rural envelopment.
6. Most of WGPMs (more than 90%) were using Television for
communication and 47.9% Mobile phones. Cont…

8. Cont…
7. Majority of 81.9% WGPMs were receiving information from Training
programme on government schemes and 61.7% WGPMs from
Saang Mandli.
8. Mainly WGPMs were first contact to Colleagues of panchayat and
some BDPO for access information. 81.9% WGPMs were receiving
information from Gram Sachiv on general time and 74.5% received
on general time from the BDPO to the rural development.
9. Majority of 93.6% WGPMs were doing self-effort to better use of
information. While 67% WGPMs received cooperation from female
community.
10. Mainly WGPMs (69.1%) were facing constraints of complexity of
technology and 67% lack of time.
11. Majority of 71.3% WGPMs agreed to the print media and 55.3%
fully agreed with electronic media that they received sufficient
information.

9. 12. More than 50% WGPMs fully agreed and 36.2% agreed to the
statement that Government officers and colleagues of panchayat
provided sufficient information. While 61.7% WGPMs agreed from
Government saang mandli, training programme and workshop.
13. Library and information centre, community information centre and
research centre were not concerned to the provided sufficient
information. WGPMs agreed that they have efforts to overcome
problems during the access of information. Majority of WGPMs
(61.7%) agreed and 29.8% fully agreed that they received sufficient
information from all the sources.

10. Conclusion
WGPMs needs information for various tasks of the rural
development and used many information sources. A large number
of WGPMs are illiterate and no single library and community
information centre available in the villages of Kurukshetra. So,
government should be reform of education system and provide
training program on use of electronic media with print media that
they can find latest information from time to time. WGPMs are
receiving information from Gram Sachiv and BDPO on general time
and getting cooperation from social groups to solve the rural
problems. Government officers and colleagues of panchayat play
vital role in providing sufficient information to WGPMs. Most of
WGPMs agreed that they received sufficient information from
different information sources with difficulties of handling
technological devices and facing lack of time constraints. Thus,
WGPMs are playing a major role in rural development.